A well balanced diet is essential to good health and growth, and is an important preventive measure itself in the health of your dog. Table food, cat food, and generic diets are unacceptable diets for your dog as they are not properly balanced for your dog’s nutritional needs and may lead to metabolic or nutritional deficiencies. Poor hair coat, poor weight gain, excess weight gain (obesity), susceptibility to disease, and general weakness are all symptoms of a poor diet.
Premium brand foods are those whose ingredients are of higher quality. Typically, the higher quality foods have nutrition more readily available to your dog because of higher digestibility and uptake than lesser quality foods have, though the guaranteed analysis may appear very similar on the label. Ask your doctor to recommend the optimum food for your dog based on his needs.
Physical exercise is integral to the developing strength and overall health of your dog. As with people, too little activity may lead to general weakness and obesity. Daily play and walks are vital to good physical condition.